Earlier today Philly.com published a report about the recent invasion of Orthodox Jews in Toms River Township. For the most part, I must say, the report was fairly balanced, and given the immense amount of hate and bigotry that has been disseminated in recent months, I give them a lot of credit.

But I learned something new. The article cites one Laurie Venditto, a homeowner in Toms River:

In adjacent Toms River, those tensions started in late 2014 when bearded men in wide hats began knocking on doors. They had friends in Brooklyn, they said, who would pay top dollar for the houses.

“The guy who came around our street called himself ‘Charles from Brooklyn,’ ” homeowner Laurie Venditto recalled.

He “must have been here 20 or 30 times” to tell her and others on Hunters Court that his fellow Haredi Jews were moving in.

“He said we wouldn’t want to live here when he was done,” Venditto recalled, speaking in the ground-floor office of her corner home.

Sidenote: I wonder if Charles from Brooklyn left a business card or a phone number? He did stop by “20 or 30 times”. I guess if the Vendittos wanted to sell their house, they would have to wait for Charles from Brooklyn to stop by a 31st time? Just wondering out loud.

The article concludes:

In Toms River, Venditto said she and her husband had gotten past their initial resistance to last year’s “threatening” message of “Charles from Brooklyn,” and had recently listed their home for sale – with an Orthodox-owned real estate firm.

Eleven of the 23 houses on Hunters Court and two adjacent cul-de-sacs have sold since 2015 at an average price of $631,000.

Venditto said she will miss her home of 19 years.

“We raised our children here.” But with their children grown, and the housing market hot, it seemed a good time to move on. “It’s the circle of life,” she said with a shrug.

Her new Orthodox neighbors across the street are “lovely,” Venditto said. But the real estate agents bearing what she called ” ‘suitcases of cash’ . . . gave me the feeling I was not welcome.”

Cash. Cash is what convinced the Vendittos to sell. Actually, cash gave them the feeling that they were not welcome. Who new cash could be so bad? Sounds terrible. They actually had to sell their home because of the “suitcases of cash”. My heart goes out to this lovely family.

While the Mayor and some “concerned” residents have been busy with the invasion of Orthodox Jews, other citizens of Toms River have been busy doing other things: committing criminal acts. Committing criminal acts in Toms River. Committing criminal acts in the townships surrounding Toms River.

According to a report by NJ.com, Andrew Mayer, 28, of Toms River, was charged with working without a permit, working without a license and driving without a license apparently in relation to a blaze that damaged at least five buildings in Keyport. Mayer is no stranger to crime, and is currently facing charges of animal cruelty and criminal mischief in connection with a March 1, 2015, incident in which his pickup truck submerged in the frozen Toms River, killing his pet dog.

Asbury Park Press reports that Michael J. Rappleyea, 43, of Toms River was found dead in a Lakewood forest from an apparent overdose

According to the Toms River Patch, Anthony Huggins, 30, of Serrata Way, Toms River, Jamal E. Dew, 32, Tyler S. Martin, 22, and Christopher P. Viscel, 46, all of Toms River, were arrested in Manchester during the month of April. According to a separate report by the Patch:

Anthony Huggins, 30, of Serrata Way, Toms River, was arrested Tuesday night in the parking lot of the Comfort Inn on Route 37 by members of the Manchester Township Police Narcotics Enforcement Team, which was conducting surveillance, Capt. Todd Malland said.

Huggins was seen shortly after 10:30 p.m. parked in the lot in a 2014 Kia Forte, and police officers approached the car, Malland said. Investigation turned up the heroin and crack cocaine concealed in the hat Huggins was wearing, he said. Further investigation revealed Huggins had gone to the Comfort Inn with the intention of selling the heroin, Malland said. Police later found more heroin that Huggins had hidden on himself, Malland said.

In other news, The Toms River Police Department is seeking the public’s help in identifying a man they say stole baby formula from a Toms River grocery store.

Instead of busying themselves with combating crime, its seems the governing body has been been busy with other things: buying $10 million worth of land in a bid to keep Orthodox Jews out of Toms River. In a comical twist, in their haste to keep the Jews out, it seems the township forgot to speak to the owner of the property.

The hysteria of the Orthodox Jewish invasion continues with Dianne DeOliveira of “Ocean County’s Hometown Station” 92.7 WOBM reporting “New tactics circumvent No Knock law in Toms River”. With a headline like that, you would assume that the invasion has intensified. Wrong.

In at least one instance, a homeowner with a No Knock sticker was approached by an individual who showed up in a rented vehicle and claimed to be from Canada and unaware of the ordinance.

How in heavens name one instance qualifies as a “new tactic” beats me. Besides, the entire article only quotes one instance of one tactic. Hardly sounds like the onslaught of foreign forces invading as the headline implies.

“The biggest problem we’re having is people are telling their neighbors or the Neighborhood Watch captain or whatever, and they’re not reporting it to us directly and they’re not getting the information from the person who is soliciting,” said Little.

Why are the purported incidents not being reported to the police? Why are residents afraid to go on record? Is it because perhaps they may get caught in a little white or outright lie?

Further Little notes:

“They also think that just somebody driving down the street and looking at houses is a violation. That is not a violation,” said Little. He pointed out that that situation sometimes leads to calls to police about suspicious people.

“There’s a little bit of panic going on, at the same time, we understand everybody’s frustration. We know some of the tricks that are being used, or trying to be used, but there’s a fine line between somebody just driving or being another resident in our town, or somebody possibly wanting to be a resident in our town and doing something illegal,” explained Little.

Get a grip people. The mass hysteria that some of the rabid haters have created, is nothing but a bunch of smoke. Stop believing the anecdotal stupidity and move on.

Oh, and for all you idiots that don’t realize we live in America, in civilized society, just note this:

A police officer also must have probable cause to issue a summons and must win that in court beyond a reasonable doubt, according to Little.

So just because your neighbor claims to have seen a peeping Tom with curly sidelocks and a hooked nose at 3 AM doesn’t mean it’s true. And no, the police can’t do anything about it either.

Toms River Township took the next step to block Orthodox Jews from invading their land, and plan to purchase $10 million worth of land in the North Dover section of the town. According to Ocean County Politics (politicsOC.com)

The township council has approved over $10 million of open space purchases, with the township set to buy tracts of land in a neighborhood bordering Lakewood.

The Asbury Park Press speculates that the idea is to stop any future development of the land by Orthodox Jews that are invading from Lakewood.

We agree, but what are your thoughts? Hit us up in the comments sections or on social media using the links below.

The sheer volume of articles and posts do not seem to abate. Most of them are accompanied by “I am not an Anti-Semite but……”. How can an issue or problem be attributed to a specific faith– the Jewish one, but at the same time not be anti-Semitic?

Ira Stoll of The Algemiener calls out the New York Times on this issue, and I think he really drives the point home.

If these businessmen — Jona Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg — were, say, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, atheists or lapsed Catholics, do you think the Times would mention it in the third paragraph of the news item about the investigation? Of course not. It’s hard to see how the information is relevant here. The Timesstory doesn’t mention the religion of the police officials, or of the FBI agents, or of Mayor de Blasio, or of the federal prosecutor doing the investigating. Only the Orthodox Jews have their religion dragged into it.

Likewise, does the Times mention in its science or business pages the religion of the scientist or businessman every time that a successful discovery or profitable deal is made by an Orthodox Jew? No. But when there is a whiff of corruption or a grand jury investigation, you can be sure the newspaper will find a way to mention Orthodox Judaism prominently in a negative context.

When will the Asbury Park Press come clean? When will the paper admit its disdain and hate for Orthodox Jews?

Sometime over the past few days I happened upon this article by Kelli Finnegan in which Kellie describes her childhood memories of growing up in Toms River. Reading her article, I couldn’t help but wonder, what are we missing here? Toms River sounds like such a beautiful town (albeit with a history of hate). Driving through Toms River on various occasion, I had a similar impression.

So why so much hate? Why do folks like Johnny Arthur, Christy Barber, and Gina Marie DiRienzo, insist on making it their top priority that Orthodox Jews should not be allowed to live in Toms River? They claim they are not anti-Semites, yet a recent post from Gina indicates her true intentions.

Who are “they” and what does “stay strong” mean?

I can go on forever about the references that these hateful individuals make. It seems quite suspect when a group is supposedly concerned about local issues, but then posts articles from across the globe (e.g. Monsey, Kiryas Joel, and Isreal??) as if it relates to the matter at hand. It seems quite suspect when they claim the issue is about overzealous real estate agents, but then it seems that the issue is really about what the Jews have done to Lakewood. Its seems quite suspect when Gina Marie reposts the following from Johnny Arthur:

How in the same breath can you say “This is not anti-Semitic”, but preceding that, talk about ways to keep Orthodox Jews out of Toms River??

Why did Christy Barber start a Change.org petition to stop the Chabad (posts about the Chabad upcoming in the near future) from obtaining a use variance by claiming that by allowing the Chabad “to operate as a religious school will have a paralyzing effect on the traffic of an already congested road”, when it is a well known and documented fact that the Chabad only has a handful of students come by a few times a week for Hebrew lessons? Will 5-10 students paralyze the area? Does Christy have an issue with the adjacent Our Lady-Perpetual Help Church and George P. Vanderveer American Legion Post 129?

Joanna Curcio, 50, and Billie Lee Foster, 32, both of Toms River, were arrested after the Lakewood Police Department Street Crime Unit conducted a March 24th sting targeting prostitutes who advertised online to perform services at local hotels.

Are the residents and governing body okay with prostitutes living in Toms River? An outcry on #TomsRiverMatters and #TomsRiverStrong Facebook groups has yet to be seen. I guess they are too busy ensuring that Orthodox Jews do not move in and ruin their township. A township of prostitution (see additional info here and here) and hate.

One can understand their frustration. Overzealous real estate agents knocking on doors at all hours of the day. Strangers peeking in windows and chatting up children. Individuals parked in front of homes for hours. Sounds crazy. Indeed it does, but there is one big issue: most of these stories are anecdotal. Other than a handful of verified storys, multiple social media pages and media outlets like the Asbury Park Press and the Shore News Network have the residents of Toms River whipped into a frenzy over anecdotal evidence. Anecdotal evidence.

The question begs to be asked: why? Why are the residents of Toms River and other municipalities in Ocean County so concerned about the influx of Orthodox Jews into their towns? Why are they turning out in the hundreds, and in some cases the thousands, to township meetings to denounce the “invasion” of Orthodox Jews? If the issue was only about overzealous and harassing real estate agents, why are there constant references to “Lakewood”, “Jews”, “Hasidics”, “Orthodox Cult”, and even references to the massive conspiracy of Jews from NY, Israel, Lakewood, to take over Toms River and its environs?

In my quest to clear up some of my questions and to piece together this puzzle of madness, I decided to do a little research.

Klu Klux Klan

In February of 2011, the Asbury Park Press ran an article titled “The Unfortunate History of the Klan in Ocean County”. The Klu Klux Klan legally organized in the State of New Jersey in 1923. A short time later the Klan saw Ocean County membership grow to 2,000 members out of a population of 22,155. It did not take much time and the Klan was already heavily involved in activities throughout Ocean County including, Point Pleasant, Lakewood, Brick, Jackson, and Toms River. The Klans activity in in Ocean County is well documented:

On June 17, 1923, members of the Klan got into their robes at Lakewood High School and marched to the First Baptist Church, escorted by state and local police.

The Fourth of July was being celebrated in Huddy Park in Toms River. Hundreds of people gathered there. The Klan burned a 10-foot cross west of the Main Street bridge as its contribution to the celebration.

Further capitalizing on their growing membership in the area, the Klan held various meeting and rallies including the following:

A reported 2,000 people turned out for an August Klan gathering at the Toms River Methodist Church, most of them outside in the driving rain. The women’s auxiliary was there in force. The church, which stood at Hooper Avenue and Washington Street, is gone now, its education building converted into courtrooms for state courts.

In December the Klan rallied at Gulick Field in downtown Toms River, before marching through the streets. An estimated 500 people attended.

More recently:

On Aug. 11, 1979, David Duke of Louisiana attended a Klan rally in Barnegat and announced he would be a candidate for President. It was hosted by a misguided Aaron Morrison, 17, at his parent’s home, although his parents abhorred the Klan.

One has to wonder how many residents of Toms River were raised by parents or grandparents that were active Klan members or were complicit bystanders?

Of Skinheads and Neo-Nazis

Fast forward to 2015: The Toms River Patch reports that Toms River is home to one of 40 hate groups in the State of New Jersey. New Jersey as a whole is the 4th most active state with Skinhead hate groups in the United States. 75% of the hate groups in NJ are comprised of neo-nazi/skinhead hate groups, with three of them located in Toms River, Point Pleasant, and Brick. The Patch article was based off of data compiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society. In 2005, members of “The Hated” skinhead group were nabbed in a bomb plot as reported by the NY Daily News. The Hated is the group that is active in Toms River. One does not have to do further research to determine what these hate groups represent, what they have perpetrated, and what they continue to do.

One has to wonder how the residents of Toms River or Mayor Kelaher can allow a hate group to operate in their town? Are the residents and governing body of Toms River complicit in allowing this hate group to continue to operate? Where are the hundreds of residents that turn out in regards to the invasion of Orthodox Jews?

The United States Census Bureau

On the face of things, it seems that Toms River has a Jew problem. But that is not actually the case. Toms River seems to have a minority problem. Toms River has a African American and Hispanic, amongst others, problem. To determine this, I enlisted the help of the United States Census Bureau. Per the Bureaus 2010 census, Whites (this includes individuals reporting White as their only race) accounted for 89.7% of the towns population. Black or African American alone? 2.8%. Asian alone? 3.7%. I think you get the gist. Toms River has no interest in any minorities. I’d be shocked if the next census indicates an improvement in these numbers. Toms River does not want anyone that does not fit in their proverbial box. And that’s a shame. In 2016, you’d think the hate was long eradicated. Unfortunately, that is not the case. So don’t kid yourself into thinking that its just about the Orthodox Jews, because its not.

I began this article asking, why? Given the aforementioned, I think I know the answer. Hopefully you can come to the same conclusion.

Of all the complaints about Lakewood, by far the most popular is that the Jewish residents of Lakewood don’t pay property taxes. The common wisdom is that the typical resident has declared their home to be a house of worship, thereby earning a tax-exempt status and allowing the owner to avoid paying any property taxes. Since a large number of households are doing this, even the majority according to some accounts, Lakewood is in a perennial budget crisis due to their revenue shortfall.

It is understandable that this causes resentment in neighboring communities. After all, the average American is struggling to pay their mortgages and working long hours or multiple jobs, and watching an entire population gaming the system is hard to stomach. And if they are not paying into the system, why do they deserve services such as busing to private schools?

But is it true?

Fortunately, this question should be simple to answer since there is a plethora of information on the Internet. All of the property tax assessment records, both the details and statistics, are publicly available for free on the county website, and Lakewood’s audited financial statements are available on the township website.

To properly frame the question, what we are trying to answer is if there are a large number of households that are tax exempt. If there turns out to be a large percentage of properties that are tax exempt, this would support the theory. If there are not, then the theory is wrong.

The Ocean County Board of Taxation has a report on their website that contains all the raw data that we need. It is under Statistical Reports and then under Line Item Breakdown. The 2015 report can be found here.

There are a lot of numbers in this table, but we only need two columns. “Class 15 Exempt Total” shows the number of properties that are tax exempt. (Each of the class types are a different category of property, class 15 means tax exempt). “Total Ratables & Exempt” are the total number of properties in a town. To get the percentage, we can simply divide the two columns.

Let’s do this for Lakewood. The number of tax exempt properties is 1,591. The total number of properties is 26,208. Dividing the first by the second, we get 6%. Of course, this number includes non-residential properties such as government buildings, parks, schools, synagogues, and churches. But we have an upper bound: the number of tax exempt residences must be much less. Hardly a majority or even close.

We can do the same calculation for every town in Ocean County. Here is the results of exactly that, sorted by percentage exempt:

Class 15 Exempt Total

Total Ratables & Exempt

Percent Exempt

EAGLESWOOD

315

1453

21.68%

LACEY

2851

18253

15.62%

OCEAN

592

5904

10.03%

MANCHESTER

2034

21693

9.38%

LT. EGG HARBOR

1177

13090

8.99%

TUCKERTON

151

2033

7.43%

BERKELEY

1986

28486

6.97%

BARNEGAT

861

13097

6.57%

BEACHWOOD

266

4308

6.17%

LAKEHURST

53

862

6.15%

LAKEWOOD

1591

26208

6.07%

STAFFORD

881

15662

5.63%

PLUMSTED

177

3257

5.43%

HARVEY CEDARS

66

1321

5.00%

PINE BEACH

47

977

4.81%

S. TOMS RIVER

59

1294

4.56%

JACKSON

929

20742

4.48%

BARNEGAT LIGHT

52

1345

3.87%

SEASIDE PARK

77

2114

3.64%

ISLAND HEIGHTS

33

942

3.50%

OCEAN GATE

40

1143

3.50%

SEASIDE HEIGHTS

69

2149

3.21%

BAY HEAD

33

1086

3.04%

BRICK

944

33464

2.82%

BEACH HAVEN

72

2779

2.59%

SHIP BOTTOM

52

2115

2.46%

PT. PLEASANT BEACH

74

3385

2.19%

LONG BEACH

201

9271

2.17%

TOMS RIVER

862

42339

2.04%

SURF CITY

38

2301

1.65%

MANTOLOKING

8

576

1.39%

PT. PLEASANT BORO

112

8342

1.34%

LAVALLETTE

25

2760

0.91%

Average

5.31%

We see from the table that Lakewood, at 6.0%, is slightly above the average of 5.3%. We also see that there are 10 other towns in Ocean County that have a higher percentage of exempt properties.

So despite the large number of Synagogues, and despite the accounts of all the residents turning their homes into a place of worship, the actual percentage of exempt properties in Lakewood is completely in line with the other towns of the county. This does not point to a large number of residents escaping property taxes, in fact the numbers show this is not at all a reality.

But we need to be skeptical. What if the county records are not accurate? What if residents are being assessed but are not paying their tax bills? We know that Lakewood’s finances are in shambles, so where is all the tax money going? What is going on here?

Fortunately, we can find Lakewood’s most recent independent audit here. The audit contains a detailed set of financial statements. The auditor is Holman Frenia Allison, which is a well-regarded CPA firm based in Toms River who has audited numerous municipalities in NJ.

The pertinent information is on page 11. We see that the total revenue for 2014 was $199 million. Out of that $164 million was “receipts from total taxes”. This would be the property tax payments. We can do a quick estimate: let’s divide the total tax payments by the number of properties. Dividing $164 million by 25,839 (the 2014 number) we get $6300. This is a very rough estimate of the average tax payment. That is very close to the actual average as showing in the table in this article on myCentralJersey.com.

So what does that prove? It shows that the numbers work out. We saw before that the number of tax exemptions is not out of the ordinary, and almost all residents are assessed taxes. We now proved that the tax assessments are actually translated into tax payments and realized as revenue for the town.

But wait a second! If the revenue is so high, then why is Lakewood having so many budget problems? We can answer that by looking at the same audit, also on page 11. The amount of revenue for 2014 was $199 million. The amount of expenses was $188 million. The difference is $11 million. That’s right, Lakewood had an $11 million surplus in 2014, and $5 million in 2013. The Asbury Park Press reports that in 2015, they had a $12.7 million surplus. So the surplus is not a one time fluke. And it certainly doesn’t look like there is anything wrong with Lakewood’s finances. In fact, they are quite good.

So, let’s sum up:

Very few of Lakewood residents are tax exempt.

Almost all of Lakewood residents are paying their taxes.

Lakewood has a regularly occurring budget surplus, and is in an excellent financial condition.

In short, the popular belief that somehow Lakewood residents are gaming the system and not paying taxes has been thoroughly debunked, and we have shown there is absolutely no truth to that accusation.